Food Waste - food caddy
Reducing food waste going to landfill has never been more important. When food waste is sent to landfill it breaks down and releases methane and carbon dioxide, potent greenhouse gases that contributes to climate change.
To reduce our impact on the environment, a new separate food waste collection service has been introduced to help increase the amount of food waste being recycled.
How to use your food waste collection service:
Every household that receives a kerbside collection should have a small grey kitchen caddy, 50 compostable liners annually and a larger green external caddy.
Follow the below steps to recycle your food waste correctly:
- Line your kitchen caddy with a compostable liner, newspaper or don't line the caddy at all
- Place all your food waste in the kitchen caddy
- When the kitchen caddy is nearly full, transfer the food waste into your larger green external caddy
- On your collection day place the larger green external caddy at the property kerbside by 7:30am alongside your other weekly waste and recycling collections
- Crews will collect the waste from your external caddy and will return it to where it was presented. Please collect your caddy once emptied from the kerbside
If you live in a property that has waste collected in communal shared bins, you will be provided with a small grey kitchen caddy. We ask residents to transfer their food waste to the provided communal bins labelled up for food waste.
What goes in the food waste caddy?
 |  |
|---|---|
| Plate scrapings - all uneaten food and plate scrapings | Any food packaging waste including plastic, cardboard or cans |
| Dairy products - cheese, eggs, yoghurt | Liquids / Oils / Fats |
| Bread and pastries - bread, cake, pastries | Pet Waste |
| Meat and bones - raw meat, cooked meat, bones | |
| Tea bags and coffee grounds | |
| Fruit and vegetables - raw vegetables, cooked vegetables, whole fruit, peelings | |
| Fish - raw fish, cooked fish, bones | |
Rice, pasta and beans | |
| Newspaper (only when used as liner) |
- The food waste goes to an Anaerobic Digestion (AD) system.
- Here, it captures both methane and carbon dioxide as the food waste breaks down, creating bio gas.
- This biogas is then used to generate electricity and heat homes.
- On top of this, the digestate from the process creates bio-fertiliser which is rich in nutrients that is used for agricultural land.
Therefore, recycling food waste means you are helping create renewable energy, powering and heating your home, as well helping tp grow new food crops.
Compostable caddy liners can be purchased from the Basildon Centre or from your local library. You can also purchase liners from other outlets, such as supermarkets as long as they are compostable and show the compostable logo.
We are aiming to roll out food waste collections at flats by spring 2023.
Here are some helpful tips :
- Plan your meals for the week to reduce the amount of food that you buy
- Check the use by dates on food packaging and freeze food before it goes out of date
- Use food waste apps, where you can give away unwanted food to people who need it
- Try composting at home
Replacement food caddies are free of charge.
- Order a new Caddy: Request recycling containers
If you require an additional external caddy due to lack of capacity, try reducing the amount of food waste you produce prior to ordering.